CVRDA

Aaaah. Fame at last. Can't say my ownership adds any lustre to this amazing craft, but I can back up Andrew's description. This is quite the most gorgeous example of varnished Fairey woodwork, and in my opinion, well worth the money.

Nick

If you can find a copy of John Millar's history of West Kirby Sailing Club "Anything but Sailing", and surely the longest, fattest book ever written about a sailing club, you will find a potted history of the lake itself.

Nick

Jim

I've looked out my copy. I have absolutely no idea how to post a copy of it on this forum, but if there are particular boats you want the figure for I'm happy to look it up.

Nick

Surely the answer to this is to use the official numbers as published by the compiler, who used to be S. Zillwood Milledge in the 50's. I recall that he published the official numbers for 1959 in October 1958, in the '59 Dinghy Year Book. This covered both Primary and Secondary Portsmouth Standard Y...

Back sometime in the 70's, when Simon Relph first opened Leigh Dinghy Stores near Pennington Flash, he was an agent for the Wizard. I remember going to his store and seeing two of these boats on display on the pavement outside his shop. I'm sure he would be good source of detail for the Dinghy Datab...

Quite right. We have Lark 12 at Frensham. Apart from a hull rebuilt a couple of times, a couple of replacements masts, sails etc, it's the same old boat.

Nick

It's a Lark.

Nick

I remember the red Daring very clearly. We lived in a house on the front, overlooking the marine lake, and I saw that Daring frequently. It was the reason I was looking for one some years ago, but have been unable to find one. I actually visited the people who owned the red Daring back in the 60's. ...

Jim Are you sure about the rudder being ahead of the centreboard ? I don't have the picture now, but I clearly remember a normal rudder hanging, the rudder being operated by a yoke attached to two rods or lines, which went back to a conventional tiller in the cockpit - basically the same arrangement...

This is really testing the little grey cells. I'm pretty sure Manfred Curry was an American who lived in or around New York, though he seemed to win many of his championships in Europe. He was undoubtedly a top dinghy sailor in the 20's and 30's, and wrote several books on the sport. One of those wa...

It looks like Aero, Manfred Curry's 20 sq.m boat, but in the picture it looks smaller than I remember pictures of Aero, and the battens are different. Is it in this country ? I'd be surprised if it was. Glad to see it has the Curry brake, a device for stopping the boat quickly.

Nick

This bird is remarkably like the one that is in the middle of the Wivenhoe O D class insignia. That has slabs of colour round it, but the bird is the same.

Regards

Nick

This is annoying, as I rather like small 'cats'. There were two quite popular designs back in the day. One was Bill O'Brien's River Cat, with a beautifully proportioned rig, but that had vertical stems. The other, which this boat resembles a bit, was Ian Proctor's Catkin. Both boats were between 12f...

The best way to stop swimmers encroaching on the sailing area is to give them an area where they can swim, and then rescue craft etc can say the lake welcomes swimmers provided they stay in the marked area. Frensham Pond has two public access swimming areas, and on the whole people do respect that. ...

As you say, very Peter Milne. So what about a Mirror 14 ? Bow is right, and those wide side decks, but I don't remember M14's having a rear deck. Guess it could have been added later. The M14 was actually 14ft 6in confusingly, but the ebay tape measure could have struck again. Stitch and glue lent i...